Hydrocarbon fluids, such as oil and natural gas, are obtained from a hydrocarbon-bearing formation, referred to as a reservoir, by drilling a well that penetrates the formation. After a wellbore is drilled, the well is completed before hydrocarbons are produced from the well. Completing the well involves designing, selecting, and installing equipment and materials in or around the wellbore for conveying, pumping, or controlling the production or injection of fluids.
The sand control completion of a typical well may involve the downhole construction of a two-stage filter for purposes of preventing unconsolidated materials from being produced with the oil or gas. The filter typically includes gravel pack sand (the outer stage) and a screen or liner (the inner stage). The gravel pack sand is sized according to the particle size distribution of the unconsolidated materials, and the screen or liner has openings that are sized to retain the gravel pack sand. The gravel pack sand retains the unconsolidated formation materials, and the screen liner retains the gravel pack sand. The produced oil or gas flows through the gravel pack sand, through the screen or liner and then typically into a production tubing string that communicates the fluid to the surface of the well. The gravel pack sand typically is deposited around the screen or liner in a “sand control” operation.
A potential challenge associated with a conventional sand control application is that the gravel sand packed region may trap formation damage in the reservoir. Therefore, for purposes of bypassing any damage, which may be trapped by the gravel sand pack, a hydraulic fracturing operation may be performed to fracture the unconsolidated formations. The phrase “frac pack” typically is used to describe simultaneously or near simultaneously hydraulically fracturing an unconsolidated formation and introducing the gravel pack sand around the screen or liner.
The screen or liner typically is run downhole and installed as a lower completion, and then the sand control/frac pack operation is performed. After the completion of the sand control/frac pack operation, a flow control valve typically is run downhole as part of an upper completion. This approach typically places a limit of two flow control valves that may be installed: a first flow control valve that controls flow through the inner passageway of a tubing that is in fluid communication with one of the zones; and a second flow control valve that controls a flow in an annular space outside of the tubing, which is in fluid communication with another one of the zones.